Dmitry Linkov

Make your job good. Take responsibility. We all hear these principles very often from blogs, books etc. But it happens that sometimes we make mistakes. Some time ago I took a project that I couldn’t complete in time. Everything finished more or less good, but the situation was not comfortable at all. And that time I remembered a “who cares” principle.

If you said that you will do something or you are obliged to do it - who cares that you were not able to complete it?
Feel responsibility! It’s on your shoulders! Do everything that you can to complete the job, and if you see that you are not able - tell about it a day before, but not after! Because in the end - nobody cares of your problems!

Just ask yourself sometimes, and it can help you.

New Venture Firm - Qiming Venture Partners is being organized.

What is the coolest thing is that their corporate site is actually a blog! And it rocks! Actually even if we will take a free Wordpress system, get one good template and adjust it to corporate design (1 day of work), buy hosting and domain name (100$ for a year) and give it to your superb pr team! Creating a web presence is simple and effective as never before!

One more thing about personalizing the relationships with the client. Situation:

I’m calling to companies call center, operator is taking the phone: “Hello. My name is John, how can I help you?”. I describe my problem to him, and he gives me a possible solution. I ring off. Trying and the solution doesn’t work. No problem, I call the custom service once again. Operator on the phone: “Hello. My name is Mary, how can I help you?”. And here it is - I need to explain her once again my problem, moreover what John recommended me to do etc. I don’t have any possibility get connected to John who already knows my problem.

Your customers will be happy if you solve this problem.

Seth wrote 2 posts (there are even 3) about relationships with client and dissatisfaction after it. Surely personal relationships are the key problem.

The main thing I want to talk is that today such things becomes formal. The ultimate step is fulfilling what you said/wrote/e-mailed. But for companies it is formality to write Sorry-letters. For customers is formality to receive such letters. On developing markets or in certain niches this will go on just because there are no other options.

Conclusion is simple - do good services personally, avoiding formality. Or compete with others using these principles. Thats a great market.

Firstly I thought “wow, that’s cool!”. But practice showed that it was a bad idea. E-mail is an e-mail, and there is very little common with im’s. In fact it is very uncomfortable go back to your e-mail and chat there, especiall in tabbed browsers (I use Mozilla). So in fact i have to switch away from the page I was reading just to say “Hello” to somebody. Pop-up option also not saves the day.

From Google talk I’m waiting for:

• integration of all IM protokolls
• nice themes

That’s all. I beleive that when the will apply 2 of these function the ammount of user will grow enormously.

The question is: what’s the difference between superb design agency and brand-consulting company?

I work in Interbrand Moscow office for more than half a year and I don’t see any differences. More particular question is: what’s the difference between Agency and Consulting company? In creative (marketing, branding, advertising etc.) areas especially I can’t see any differences. In other areas - there just no such word “agency” (there are “Management consulting” companies but no “Management agencies”).
My opinion is that company will not pay big money to “creative agency”, thats why we need Consulting companies. It’s just another brand.

What do you think?

Tom O’Leary in his post points at the article where is written why rss will never replace e-mail. That’s all true, and I totally agree.

But what about newsletter subsription services? Actually the way it works is quite the same as RSS, but RSS is more handy. You don’t need activation letters and etc. - you just add (or delete a feed)!

When all e-mail services will include in there web interface a possibility to add RSS feeds direct to your Income folder, the e-mail subscription services will completely die imho.

I was wrong.

There are a lot of books about succesful managers, entrepreneurs that build a great career. But there is a thing they either don’t mention at all, or mention in a way “but be ready for a hard work”. But what’s the problem with this hard work? There are some points that you will do while working as a trainee or a junior. And you need to be ready fo this.

• English language. In international companies it’s the main language and you need to know it good. You will need to make translations and do it fast.
• Courier. Be ready to be a courier. It’s not that bad - I think it’s even good not to sit in the office whole day.
• Work with stationary. If the office is not so big, you may be asked for making a booklet or print out some stuff.
• Make meeting notes. Just sit, listen and write down.
• Finally - you will need to do this for quite a time! And only when you will do all these things excellent you will move on to the next level!

Actually - everything is simple. For everything listed above you CAN be prepared. All depends of you.

As my girlfriend mentioned “It feels like you like Guy Kawasaki style” - that’s actually true :).

Thank you Guy!
p.s.: You can visit his blog here->.

First of all I don’t want to discuss if it’s good or bad to become a management trainee - I actually never became one :). But for those who choose this way of career development I want to give some advices basing on my own experience. I applied for such programs 2 times - first time on the third year of studies I applied to P&G, second time on the 4th year of studies I applied to Unilever. I failed both times - in P&G on the second stage, in Unilever on the last stage, but it’s a great experience! Finally I applied to MARS and I succeeded - but their conditions were just awful…
So let’s begin:

1. Apply! The worst thing is that you Do not apply! The application form is quite big and first thought is “I’ll do it tomorrow” and then again tomorrow, tomorrow… To be more prepared I recommend you to download one of these forms and fill those big questions (”Tell us about a demanding assignment or activity that you have had to plan and put into action?”) - they are quite the same in all companies. You can find an example here-> (from Unilever).
2. Do not write everything. When answering on these big questions do not write everything - you will be asked for the same questions on interviews and there you will be able to show yourself from the best side.
3. Be fast and sharp. You will be given a lot of tests - be fast, think fast, move on. You have to answer them all. If you do not know something - skip it, finish the whole thing and come back to unanswered points later.
4. Hold yours own opinion. Remember people you will be talking to will say “we also read this case for the first time only yesterday night”, but when you will be proposing your solution they will try to confuse you. Stand on your opinion, prove it using any arguments. They are waiting for this.
5. Lead the discussion. This means - be active in group work, propose your solution, try to produce the best answer, listen to the people and argue, if nobody listens to you - be severe for a moment. And also important thing - if you see an outsider who, maybe do not speaks English so good, or he/she is just modest - give him a hand of help. Ask what he thinks, and what his /her propositions are. This will show you as a good leader.
6. Avoid the deadlock. Silence on the interview is confusing. This is actually why you do not have to write everything in your answers. It will be great if there is even a few examples for every question - one in the application form, another in your head for an interview. I know it’s not so simple - but try to prepare.
7. Be tranquil. If you are worrying it is very noticeably. In fact - you are not loosing anything!
8. Give an answer. If you are asked “what is the height of Everest” you do not need to answer exactly - “about 10 km” is a good answer.
9. “Why we need to hire you in particular?” - be ready for this question. You answer has to be clear and your voice stable.

Apply in different companies - some tests are equal on all of them and every next try will be better and better. It’s a very good school and don’t forget - it’s free.

Last Saturday I visited a performance of famous electronic DJ and musician John B. I heard about him a lot, but his popularity was a bit strange for me. To be frank I didn’t knew his last work as a musician, and my perception of him was a bit out-of-date. So, what I saw?

I saw a good self-marketing. John B implemented a lot of principles written in many books. I don’t know if it was well thought-out. Anyway:

1. Present yourself and a piece of BRAND Sense - right in the beginning, when John was on the scene, the first song he played was his own intro “Jooohn…. B…..” and so on something about 1 or 2 minutes. Not long, not short - effective. I hope he will use it in all mixes and web site and everywhere - then it’s going to be a good BRAND Sense example.
2. Entertainment - he smiles, he cries “hello Moscow” and some obscene words in Russian, he directs his energy to the people!
3. Involve in discussion - I hardly can remember a lot of DJ’s who bring a camera with them and record themselves and people on the dance floor. He does.
4. Make show - black nails, costume, sunglasses, punk style haircut, dancing in a robot style - he is amazing!
5. Purple Cow - definitely. He IS a living purple cow. Not only how he dresses, how he acts himself. If he will play bad music, people won’t like him. But he writes his own music in his own style - he calls it something like “new electro”. It’s very remarkable!

In fact I really enjoyed his DJ set, his music and his perfomance. He is a good example to all other DJ’s.

All the last days I was preparing to start blogging, and here it is - my first post is about Seth’s competition on searching the ethernet jack. Seth - thanks for making my blogging start easier =).
I thinks that it can be:

1. Near the carpet (thinking the worst)
2. In this huge telco device (or what is it?)
3. It’s right in your notebook
4. There is no any!

Waiting for the right answer!

Original Seth’s post can be found here->

I’m working on this blog a lot just to make it simple, clear and stylish. So that my great ideas won’t look bad because of the bad design.

Thank you for the patience.
Dmitry.